Home Life of the Glossy Ibis. 113 



in the nest. They never in all the time I observed them made 

 a mistake and put on the alert and expectant look for the 

 parents of the other nest. I could not distinguish any ma- 

 terial difference in the notes of the four adult birds, with the 

 possible exception of the female of the nest photographed ; 

 she appeared to have a coarser tone to her calls. 



Glossy Ibis appear to have less enemies than any other of 

 the birds in the Rookeries. Fish Crows appear to be the only 

 thing that bothers them and they in nearly every case secured 

 the first sets. Man, of course, is their next enemy, as is usu- 

 ally the case with any species, but here in this Rookery they 

 were not molested by man at all. 



I would say that the first sets of eggs are deposited the lat- 

 ter part of April and the second sets usually about the middle 

 to last of May, and practically all I noted laid their second sets 

 and successfully reared their young. In the four years I have 

 studied them I have found twenty-six nests in which young 

 were successfully reared. The first year there were two nests, 

 the second year six, and the next two years there were nine 

 each. This year, 1913, I observed three pairs about the Rook- 

 eries, but as the White Ibis did not nest on the lake this 

 year the Glossy Ibis did not either, there being in all proba- 

 bility a lack of the proper amount of food to accommodate 

 the great army of Ibis. It is to be hoped that they will stick 

 with the White Ibis and return in a few years again with 

 them, as the White Ibis will return as soon as the food sup- 

 ply becomes sufficient again. 



In the twenty-six nests my records show that there were 

 raised four young in fourteen of them and in eight nests three 

 young were reared and in the remaining four nests only two 

 young were raised, these last two nests probably being raided 

 by Fish Crows. I should say that half of the full sets of this 

 species would be four eggs and the other half three eggs. In 

 contrast to this set of the White Ibis in ninety-nine per cent 

 of the sets will be three eggs. The eggs are dull greenish 

 blue, Prussian Blue being the color that best describes them. 



The amount of food consumed by these birds is immense, 



